I Don't Speak Chinese

A colleague of mine (Lenora Edwards) told me a great story today: A friend of hers signed her daughter up for Chinese language classes. Her daughter didn’t want to go. When asked why, she said “Because I don’t speak Chinese”.

Every day I talk to folks who don’t want to work with me until they understand internet marketing. In other words, they don’t want to learn Chinese until they can already speak it. You see the problem.

The solution is easy: Let go. Be ready to learn, and understand that when you work with an internet marketer (or any other consultant, for that matter) you need to know how to hold them accountable, and that’s it. You can hold them accountable through things you already know: Are they increasing your sales? Are you getting more leads? Are you saving money? You manage risk by focusing on what you know, not by obsessing about what you don’t.

Stick to common sense. Let the expert do their job, so you don’t have to become one. And who knows, somewhere along the way you may learn Chinese.

Ian Lurie is CEO and founder of Portent and the EVP of Marketing Services at Clearlink. He's been a digital marketer since the days of AOL and Compuserve (25 years, if you're counting). He's recorded training for Lynda.com, writes regularly for the Portent Blog and has been published on AllThingsD, Smashing Magazine, and TechCrunch.
Ian speaks at conferences around the world, including SearchLove, MozCon, Seattle Interactive Conference and ad:Tech. He has published several books about business and marketing: One Trick Ponies Get Shot, available on Kindle, The Web Marketing All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies, and Conversation Marketing.
Follow him on Twitter at portentint, and on LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in/ianlurie.